Iran Press/ Africa: Other messages on placards included "Free Palestine," "Support for the Palestinians is not anti-Semitic," "Save Palestinian human rights," and "You don’t have to be Muslim to support Palestine! "Speaking to Iran Press at the protest, Palestinian activist Blaise Tulo said they are "extremely concerned" about the current situation unfolding in Palestine. “
Over the last four months, we have organized close to 12 different demonstrations all over the country, we organized a demonstration here in Accra, we organized a demonstration in Tamale, we organized a demonstration in Kumasi, and the essence of our demonstrations and protests are simple and humane, we are saying that we must all stand up against the apartheid colonial occupation that is happening currently in Palestine.
We cannot stand aloof and see our brothers and sisters more than 29,000 Palestinians have been killed over the last four months, how can we stand neutral, we are entrenched in this position, we are against the role Israel is playing in this war and we demand a complete end to what is happening in Gaza.”
First of all, the petition is in response to the ruling that just came out from the International Court of Justice. The International Court of Justice has ruled in the preliminary release that what Israel is doing in Gaza amounts to genocide, so we are asking the UN which has the constitutional mandate to enforce that decision to make sure they enforce the decision, that is contained in our petition.
The other demand we are making very forcefully is that governments across the African continent must take an entrenched position in this matter, we cannot stand and watch the people of Palestine being killed, we have a role to play and we are demanding that the institutions of Parliament must send a petition to the United Nations demanding that they enforce the ruling of the international court of justice.
And finally, we want to send a signal to the United States of America and Israel that what they are paper rating in Palestine will not go unfought, we are going to fight them, we've defeated them before in South Africa and we are going to defeat them again this time around."
Speaking on the ruling of the International Court of Justice, Tulo said Israel has continued the act of bombarding which according to him is an act of disrespect and nobody is saying anything.
"Since the ruling came up we notice Israel is continuing that act of bombarding Gaza, and we are all quiet, we can enforce it, we can call Isreal to order, we can stop the international finances and alm treaty that allows Isreal to receive weapons from the United States of America and its western allies to use those weapons to bombard our brothers and sisters in Palestine.
We as a country especially Ghana must make sure that all international trade with Israel is stopped immediately because that is where they are getting the finance from, this is a demand we are not requesting people that represent the wishes and aspirations of our people, they better take it or face the consequences that history has taught us.
Take it from me, no apartheid colonial occupation has existed on the face of the earth forever, it hasn't happened before, so Israel should not live under the illusion that they are going to win this war, the people's wishes and aspirations have always thrived against any useless occupation that has existed on the face of the earth and I can assure you that Israel is going to fall whether they like it or not."Majeed Mohammed who is also a member of the socialist movement Ghana said proximity is irrelevant because this is not the first time fighting across the border.
“There is this irrelevant talk about proximity anytime we talk about what is happening in Gaza, it’s irrelevant to me because this is not the first time we have seen people fight across borders for justice, we have seen this happening in South Africa, South Africa is not in Western Africa but we spoke and spoke clearly because what was happening was amounted to injustice and amounted to anything that if you’re a human you will speak against.
So what is happening in Palestine we cannot stay aloof because of proximity, what happened in Palestine could have been happening next door, it could have been happening in Uganda because Uganda was the first place tipped as a state for the Israeli people.
We are not against Jewish people, we are against the oppressive Israeli regime, we are against Netanyahu and his evil administration and what they are perpetuating, and we are against the apartheid Israeli regime that is perpetuating genocide against the innocent Palestinian people and Africans, it is a duty on us because when we fought against colonialism people around the world help us not because they black people, not because they're white, Muslims or Christians but they spoke because there were human, so Palestine people are human beings and if you consider yourself a human being you should speak against what is happening in Gaza.”
A female protester also lauds the South African government for being bold in deciding on going to the International Court of Justice, according to her “The fire must cease and Gaza must be free.” 219
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